Peeling the Onion
by FrankandJoe3
Summary: In less than 24 hours, the team finds out more about Robin then they know to deal with.  I'm bad at summaries, but this is just basically about how the team finds out about Robin's past


**Words can't describe this feeling. I feel… Anger grips my heart, sorrow stains my eyes, but an endless smile is cursed to my lips. Pain coats my body in its protective embrace and coldness runs through my veins like blood in the waters. **

**This is a response to DeppleICk's challenge for 'Five Times'. Warning: I have a hard time placing the others, but I will try. **

**~Superboy #1~**

Superboy's icy cold stare met Robin's masked stare and they waited for Black Canary's signal to go as they waited to spar. Robin's black gloves were tight around his hands as he held them up in small fists, in a small defense stance. Superboy knew better than to underestimate the 'Boy Wonder', but the boy wasn't looking all too wonderful as he stood two feet shorter than his opponent and had to crane his neck to meet his eyes. Superboy also felt that having powers put him at a higher advantage than the protégé of Batman who had nothing but a small yellow belt.

"Whenever you're ready," Black Canary's voice sounded.

Robin gestured gently for Superboy to make the first move, smiling gently. Superboy obliged and charged forward, a strategy beginning to form within the depths of his mind, unbeknownst to him. All he wanted to do now was just to land a single punch. He was sure that that was all it would take to bring Robin down. The ebony haired boy didn't move though. He quickly glanced to the side to make sure Batman was still watching him before advancing towards Superboy himself.

That caused Superboy to smirk gently and he brought his fist back and towards the mask wearing, caped sidekick. Robin simply ducked beneath the fist and went behind Superboy, kicking the underneath of his knee. Superboy's leg faltered, but he didn't trip, but Robin hadn't expected him to. He just wanted to stall a little until Superboy decided to stop going for brute force. Superboy spun around just as fast, aiming a quick foot for Robin's legs. Robin, treating it like a jump rope, simply leapt into the air over the foot and bounded back, sneaking a glance behind him before waiting for Superboy to come towards him.

Superboy wasn't one to study strategies. He mostly just charged and hit and hoped that a few hits would bring the enemy down, in which case was Robin. He did notice one thing though: Robin wasn't even trying to land a hit. He wasn't even really trying to hurt Superboy. He seemed to be just dodging around. Superboy didn't care though. That just made it easier on his part. He simply charged again towards Robin, determined to take the boy down now. Robin didn't move at first. He studied the older boy's movement before fainting left and causing Superboy's fist to go in that direction, letting the mask wearing bird to fly away yet again.

"I didn't come to dance," Superboy growled, turning around quickly and reaching for Robin's cape.

His finger missed by millimeters.

"I'm not dancing," Robin taunted, "You're just slow."

Superboy's eyes narrowed.

_Humph. Slow…_

Robin charged forward this time, catching Superboy temporarily off guard. He recovered just as quick though and was ready to stop the muscular young boy. Robin reached into his belt and grabbed something and threw it at Superboy. Superboy winced, waiting to feel smoke surround him or the ropes of yet another one of the infamously ingenious inventions of Batman, but instead, he felt a foot connect to his chest, causing him to stumble back a bit. Robin giggled gently, obviously amused. Superboy's eyes narrowed. In doing so, he found he could gaze right through Robin's mask. He suppressed a jump of surprise and gazed deep into Robin's eyes, a feeling of accomplishment running through him.

"Hey, you've got some pretty blue eyes there," he smirked, victory on his lips.

Robin's eyes widened and his grin dropped to a look of shock.

_How… How did he know? Oh crud, Batman is so going to kill me! I'll be whelmed to a new level! Oh! _Robin thought, terrified at the thought.

Superboy took Robin's disorientation and used it against him, punching him hard in the chest as he was caught in shock. Robin flew back and hit the ground hard, letting out a cry of pain as he did so. His head snapped forward and then rested against the ground. A small bubble surrounded him that said he had failed, but Robin didn't get up. He was staring upward in shock.

_How does he know… he knows about my eyes… and he'll tell Wally… and Wally will try to look me up… and I'll try to stop him… and then Batman will skin me and put me in Area 51 with the rest of the sidekicks that he's killed who revealed their secret identity…_ Robin was now scared stiff.

The others stared at him, but only Batman approached Robin. He knelt by the ebony haired boy's side.

"Robin," he said in a single word, expressing worry, anger and disappointment, as well as asking a dozen questions with just those five letters.

"He knows what color my eyes are," Robin whispered, his back finally realizing how cold the ground was.

Batman's eyes widened momentarily beneath the mask, but soon returned to their normal narrow slits. He helped his sidekick to his feet and the two exchanged a silent conversation spoken only with their eyes, but it was enough for them to understand each other. Robin nodded finally, shaking slightly, and bustled out of the room swiftly. Batman followed and with a swish of his cape, the Dynamic Duo were gone from the room.

"Supes, what'd you do?" Wally asked, his eyes on the door, concern heavy in them.

Superboy just continued his smirk and left the room.

_#1- Robin has blue eyes_

**~Megan #2~**

Robin reappeared later that day, looking much better and in his civvies. His hair seemed surprisingly darker and his attitude was positively bright. When he walked in, the team was mostly huddled in the kitchen and living room area. Megan, as usual, was in the kitchen, cooking. Superboy and Wally were at opposite sides of the couch, fighting over the remote, yelling at each other in cave man speak. Kaldur and Artemis sat in arm chairs on opposite sides of the couch, paying no mind to the brawl on the couch, their attention sucked into the TV which changed its channel from wrestling to the news every two or three seconds.

"Hi Robin," Megan greeted him brightly, checking inside the oven briefly.

"Hey Megan," he returned the greeting, hopping up onto one of the barstools that surrounded the counter top. "Watcha cooking?"

She picked up her cook book and slid it to Robin and pointed to some delicious looking, cheese smothered food that was bound to be as unhealthy as Hell. Robin grinned ear to ear.

"Delicious! Way better than what we were going to have at home," he said happily.

He closed his eyes and happily inhaled the scent of cookies.

"What're the cookies for?" he asked, watching her walk to the refrigerator to get who knows what from its many drawers and nooks and crannies.

"Well, they're for eating silly!" she teased, setting some foreign bottle on the counter full of yellow and black looking powder.

Robin eyed it suspiciously, a grin still on his face at the cookies and cheese smothered food.

"Can I have one?" he asked greedily, his blue eyes sparkling beneath the shades.

Megan smiled.

"Sure. I need someone to test them anyway. It's some new recipe I looked up," she confided, opening the oven and pulling the cookie sheet from it.

She set it on the counter top by Robin next to the cook book and let him pick one out. The cookies were pale in color and had a strange X over the top, but they smelled heavenly. Robin picked one up and took a huge bite out of it, his eyes swelling and grin breaking out over his face as he did so. His heart skipped a beat and he happily devoured the cookie.

"How was it?" Megan asked shyly, watching Robin uncertainly.

Robin laughed. "That's amazing Megan! I haven't had that good of a sugar cookie ever since Mom di-…." He let his voice fade off and he coughed heavily. "I haven't had that good of a sugar cookie in a long while!"

Megan rose an eyebrow at the slip up, but she smiled politely. She knew what was Robin was going to say. She could feel the d on his tongue. He was going to say that he hadn't had that good of a cookie ever since his mom died. Megan's heart swelled and Robin's smile faded, but Megan and Robin both forced their attention unanimously to the cheese smothered dish and the cookies again to distract themselves.

_#2- Robin's mom is dead_

**~Kaldur #3~**

Robin collapsed on the couch next to Wally hungrily devouring whatever it was that Megan had cooked. He was addicted to cheese which made it even better. Wally was just as hungrily inhaling the food, as if it was precious oxygen.

"Dang babe, this is good," Wally called over his shoulder at Megan.

Superboy's eyes narrowed and he glared at the red head, but Robin returned the glare and Superboy could see it, so he dropped the gaze reluctantly.

"Uh… thanks," Megan said slowly.

The sounds of a movie beginning came over the TV sounded and Robin suspiciously reached for the remote, hitting Select to see what movie it was. It was Paprika, an anime movie that was kind of like Inception, only creepier and more Japanese. Robin quickly changed the channel.

"Why would they play this movie? It's so stupid," he grumbled beneath his breath. "Better yet, why must they have circus scenes? They never get them right anyway! How hard is it to get a simple circus scene right? They should've let me direct those scenes."

Wally glanced over at Robin.

"Did you say something Rob?" the red head asked.

Robin jumped.

"Wha- oh, no. Just talking to myself," he smiled.

Wally nodded. "Just don't answer yourself. If you do, I'll have to stop hanging out with you."

Robin laughed, but Kaldur couldn't shake off what he had read from the ebony haired boy's lips. What would Robin know about the circus? That would explain how he could do all those flips and flops and tosses and turns in the air in training and such… Actually, it would explain a lot.

_#3- Robin knows about the Circus. Maybe he was in it?_

**~Artemis~**

The happiness on Robin's face seemed to deflate once Batman came to Mount Justice to take him away.

"Aw, dude! Why do you have to go? Just call your folks and ask them to let you stay longer! Please?" Wally begged, his emerald eyes sparkling.

Robin tensed up at the mention of his folks, but he shook his head and smiled gently.

"I would if I could," he said, a hint of sorrow in his voice.

"You could borrow my phone, if you want?" Artemis offered.

True, she hated Wally with all of the hatred she possessed in her soul, but it bothered her to see him upset because then he'd complain all night about it and drive her insane. Robin seemed to panic at the mention, but he calmed himself quickly.

"No, I really can't," he insisted, holding up his hands in a soft surrender.

"Go ahead, it's no bother," Artemis encouraged him.

Wally pouted harder.

"Please Rob!"

Robin turned his head.

"I said no," he sort of snapped.

"I'll be in the car," Batman dismissed himself, seeing that he was only interfering.

Robin tried to follow him, and he almost succeeded, except for the fact that Artemis caught him by the shoulder.

"Come on! At least try to call them. Wally wants you to stay and if you don't, he'll bitch and moan about it all night to us!" she pleaded.

Robin groaned, his eyes angry, but he bit his lip harder. Artemis noticed, but she said nothing about it.

"I said no. I can't," he said, a bit more forceful now.

"Why can't you?" she snapped, refusing to let him leave until he called.

"Because I can't call my parents," he growled, attempting to tear open the door.

The whole team was staring at the two of them bickering now, but no one moved. Artemis pressed her hand hard against the door so Robin couldn't open it.

"If you forgot their number, we can just ask Batman for it," she pointed out.

Shaking with rage, Robin pushed her back so she hit the hardwood floors and he glowered down at her.

"I can't call them because they're dead," he mouthed before nearly ripping the door off its hinges and tearing from the room.

Artemis lay there on the floor in shock for a moment.

_Because they're dead_ kept ringing through her head and she could feel the anger flowing through Robin when he shoved her back.

Artemis got up before Wally came to help her.

"What'd Robin say?" he asked.

Artemis averted her eyes before sitting back down.

"He just said that they don't want him staying out late tonight," she lied.

Wally groaned angrily.

"Well, this sucks!" he began to complain.

_#4- Robin's parents are dead. _

**~#5~**

Wally smiled brightly at Robin when the boy walked through the doors of Mount Justice, but Robin didn't return the smile. In fact, it looked as if he hadn't smiled in a long while. He had red tear tracks stained into his pale cheeks and he sort of hugged the walls as he walked.

"Rob, you okay?" Wally probed.

Robin ran a weak hand through his hair.

"I uh… no," he whispered to himself, but Wally couldn't hear. "Go get the others and meet me back here."

Wally raised an eyebrow, but nodded.

"Whatever you insist," he tore from the room, his body becoming a red and yellow blur.

Robin sat down on the coffee table in front of the couch and chairs, burying his face in his hands.

_This is so stupid. He's going to kill me. Batman is going to kill me. I got punished hard enough last night… Oh, he's so going to kill me… This is… this is… I have to do this!_ Robin was at war with himself.

After being sentenced to the hardest training simulation he had ever faced for an hour at the Wayne Manor in the Bat Cave, his muscles ached angrily and his eyes stung from the tears he had been crying last night. Batman hadn't said a word to him since he had gotten home yesterday. When he raised his head weakly, he was surprised to see that the whole team was in front of them, Wally included, and they all looked worried.

"Is something the matter?" Kaldur asked gently.

Robin took a deep breath.

"I… Yeah, something is the matter."

He removed his sunglasses gently and scanned them all with his brilliant blue eyes. Wally felt a sudden smile tug at his lips at the beauty of his friend's eyes, but he swallowed it when he saw how depressed they looked.

"I've messed up and Batman is mad at me enough, so I figured I might as well tell you all this before he kills me or something. If I die, I'd rather not have my… well, I'd rather not die having all of my MOAS's with me."

"Mo Ass?" Wally repeated.

"Mother of All Secrets," Robin defined, his frown deepening.

He took a shaky breath and looked over them all again.

"There are some things I won't tell you, in case Batman decides not to murder me, but there are some things I need to get out…" he began.

Once again, his eyes studied each of his teammates, and to his surprise, he found that he trusted every person in that room. That helped him a little bit. They all sort of nodded, gesturing for him to continue.

"When I was growing up," he swallowed hard. "I was in the circus with my parents. We were trapeze artists, all three of us. One day, when I was nine, Tony Zucco, a gang boss, approached us and said that he wanted the circus to pay him a lot of money or else 'they're best act was going to go down hard'. I didn't know what that meant at the time and my parents didn't explain, so I wasn't worried. The next night when my parents were performing, someone put acid on the wires and my…" his voice broke and he stopped.

He focused on the rug beneath his feet and took a deep breath again.

"My parents fell to their deaths. My parents were all I had… so after the funeral, I was supposed to go to an orphanage. But a kind man… he had been watching the circus and he felt bad for me because his parents had been murdered when he was younger too, so he offered to adopt me. When he did, I found out that he was… well, a superhero," Robin laughed dryly. "He told me that he was going to go stop Zucco. Being as stubborn as I was, I wanted to kill my parents' killer myself, but he told me I couldn't."

Robin found that he was afraid to meet his teammate's eyes now.

"But I followed anyway in my circus suit and a cape and a stupid little mask and I… I just got in the way and got hurt, but I proved that I'd be a good sidekick, so he trained me… and wah-lah… You've got this heart broken mess in the place of that 9 year old orphan…"

The others were silent as they watched Robin slowly, their eyes hard and nervous. Before Robin knew it, strong arms enveloped him. He was afraid to see who it was though. He felt a strong hand on his shoulder and a gentle hand tousle his hair. He heard their words of comfort and he felt their understanding and smiled weakly.

_#5- Robin's just a scared little 9 year old orphan on the inside._

**What do you think? Was it okay? I tried really hard! Wally didn't premiere because I miscounted. Oh well, Wally knows everything so it shouldn't count. REVIEW! Please?**

_**I'm pushing you away each time  
>I pull up that old barstool<br>Drownin' you in  
>Every drop I drink<strong>_

_**Tellin' you to go to hell  
>But I'm talkin' to myself<br>'Cause you're not around  
>To hear what I think<strong>_

_**I'm tryin' to teach my heart to hate you  
>But it ain't workin' right<br>Now the truth is I'm only  
>Drinkin' me lonely tonight<strong>_

**-FrankandJoe3**


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